How a conflicting account is created

A Google Account may be created using any standard email address that can receive mail. Because of this, you may have used your Google Apps email address to create a conflicting account. A conflicting account is a personal Google Account that was created using the email address of a Google Apps account. For this reason, any Google Apps user could have two accounts with the same email address.

Here's a common scenario

Jane decides to go to www.google.com/photos and creates a Google Account with her corporate email address 'Jane@altostrat.com.'

Jane's company, Altostrat, upgrades to Google Apps -- which means each employee's email address is now that employee's username for a corporate Google Account.

Jane now has two Google Accounts -- one Google Apps account, and one Google Account, that share the same primary email address, but are completely unrelated.

The most common reason that you may have a conflicting account is that you used Google Reader, Google Voice, or Picasa Web Albums with your @my-domain.com email.

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Ashley is an Accounts expert and the author of this help page. Leave her feedback below about how to improve it.